US open: Stocks higher following CPI reading

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were in the green early on Tuesday as investors thumbed over February's all-important consumer price index.

As of 1525 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.59% at 38,998.55, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.01% to 5,169.41 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.43% firmer at 16,247.71.

The Dow opened 228.89 points higher on Tuesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as the index tried to shrug off losses registered in what was the blue-chip's worst week since October 2023.

Tuesday's early moves come as market participants digested news that the cost of living in the US was little changed last month but did not dip as much as anticipated amid the rising cost of energy. According to the Department of Labor, headline consumer prices increased at a 0.4% month-on-month pace in February, which served to push the year-on-year rate of increase from 3.1% in January to 3.2%. Core CPI also rose, up by 0.4%, so that the annual rate of increase only ticked lower by one-tenth of a percentage from January's pace to 3.8%.

February's producer price index was slated for release on Thursday, with the two key pieces of inflation data marking some of the last major macro data points scheduled for release ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting on 19 March.

Elsewhere on the macro front, optimism among small businesses in the US unexpectedly declined last month, according to the National Federation of Independent Business, with inflation still a concern for many firms despite the recent slowdown in price pressures over recent months. The closely watched NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell to 89.4 last month, from 89.9 in January, missing analysts' forecasts for a pick-up to 90.7 and marking the 26th straight month below the 50-year average reading of 98. According to the survey, 23% of small business owners said that inflation was their single most important business problem in operating their business in February, up from 20% the month before.

Still to come, the Federal Government's monthly budget statement will be published at 1800 GMT.

In the corporate space, Oracle shares surged in early trading after its fourth-quarter earnings topped Wall Street estimates as its cloud services and license support segment saw a 12% increase in revenues, while tech shares rallied at the bell, with Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta all in the green early on Tuesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

3M Co. (MMM) $97.79 3.97%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $198.34 3.45%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $412.78 2.04%
Visa Inc. (V) $283.46 1.03%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $61.28 1.02%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $374.86 0.90%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $45.23 0.82%
American Express Co. (AXP) $221.94 0.79%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $337.28 0.69%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $277.23 0.68%